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The desire which Helen showed for talking in French with some of her distant friends, suggested to me the thought of including a few letters in the translation exercises. These were selected from various sources, and were received by Helen with great enthusiasm. The following is one of the letters which she wrote in March, 1890, from an English dictation. This letter was one day found among other papers pertaining to last year's work, and given to Helen, who translated it with astonishing ease, hesitating with only a few of the words, each one of which she recalled with a little thought; yet she had not seen the letter for eight months.

MELROSE, le 27 Mars, 1890.

MA CHERE ELISE: -- Dans quelques jours j'aurai une semaine de vacances. Il m'est tres difficile de rester enfermee dans une salle d'etude, quand toute est si belle dehors! A present le temps est magnifique. Deja les cerisiers sont en fleurs, et les collines sont d' un vert tendre et frais. On entend les oiseaux chanter parmi les arbres en fleurs ainsi que le bourdonnement des insectes et le murmure des ruisseaux; on sent la douce haleine du vent impregnee du parfum des premieres fleurs. Oh! que je serai heureuse quand je pourrai etre libre comme les oiseaux de l'air, et courir tout le jour dans les pres et les bois! Voulez-vous venir passer les vacances avec moi, chere Elise? Je suis sure qu' une semaine a la campagne vous ferait du bien. Ma mere vous envoie ses amities, et vous prie de venir.

Ecrivez-moi quel jour et a quelle heure vous viendrez, et nous irons vous attendre a la gare. Je vous embrasse de tout mon coeur.

Votre amie devouee, R. H. K.

Helen has not yet been taught the use of French accents, and therefore they are omitted from the above letter. Her lessons with me preceded her first knowledge of the vowel elements gained from her work in articulation, and I did not attempt, at the beginning of her study of the French language, to introduce the accent marks, the meaning of which, at that time, would have been very obscure to her.

Helen was much distressed by a failure to remember anything which she had ever known, and it was seldom that she suffered this pain. It became evident, during our second lesson, that she would not need reviews. The sentences of the first lesson comprised so many new words, that I thought it best to have them repeated before more were learned. When I asked questions to suggest the sentences of the previous lesson, Helen said, in an emphatic, surprised way: "I know them: Please teach me something new!" I was, however, assured of her knowledge by a perfect recitation, and a review was never again requested.

Her interest in French was constant. There was no decrease of enthusiasm after the novelty of the first study hours had passed away, but she ever showed the spirit of a true scholar.

Paris was often before her mind, as the place to which the French lessons were surely leading her; and she would frequently give imaginary dialogues between herself and little French children. She liked to think of these dear friends of the future.

I shall always be grateful for the question which, with its answer, brought me for a few weeks so near to Helen's wonderful mind and heart, and revealed to me all the most precious characteristics of her rich nature.

Love of Nature.

"She lives upon the living light
Of nature and of beauty."
Bailey.

Helen is an enthusiastic admirer and a true and consistent lover of nature. She enjoys worshipping in its temples with Galen and Aristotle, Pliny and Buffon, Humboldt and Agassiz, Emerson and Thoreau, and joining them in their gratulatory hymns of praise. Her fondness for it is something more than fancy; it is a passion that gives to her young life a charming ardor and a delicate refinement. The glorious splendor and uniform motion of the heavenly bodies, and the ample theatre of our planet with its stately beauty and constant order, although invisible to her sightless eyes, are ever present to her mind; they rouse her imagination and kindle the liveliest of her feelings.

Helen's frequent allusions to springtime and to the budding trees and growing blades of grass show her susceptibility to the influences of the seasons, and her quick sense of the refreshment and renovation afforded by nature to heart and soul. At her timid but familiar knock the doors of the vast storehouses of the system of our mother earth are opened wide, and she finds therein never-failing sources of contemplation and amusement. Sunshine, balmy air, birds, beasts, verdant woods, the fragrant sweetness of plants, the pleasant fertility of the earth and all the tremendous varieties of the animal and vegetable kingdoms have a greater significance and a deeper meaning for her than for ordinary mortals. For her there are tales in leaves, romances in living creatures, stories in breezes and pictures in waves.

Never was a child more devoted to the adoration of nature, more sensitive to the changes of the seasons or more responsive to the stir of universal life, than Helen is. Witness the following letter to Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes: --